Down the Wells

Wells Fargos Payday Loans Have Left Puerto Rico Billions of Dollars in the Hole

Puerto Rico is embroiled in a dire humanitarian crisis that is being compounded by its unsustainable debt load. Congress passed the
Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) in June 2016, which created a Fiscal Control Board to
oversee the Commonwealths finances. But in order for it to do its job fairly, the Control Board must understand how Puerto Rico came
to be so deeply indebted in the first place. The ReFund America Project is releasing a series of reports investigating Puerto Ricos debt.
Our previous reports can be found on our website, at refundproject.org/#puerto-rico.

Wells Fargo played a critical role in pushing Puerto Rico to take on ...an effective
unsustainable levels of debt, contributing to the financial crisis that
engulfs the island today. Wells Fargo and Wachovia (which Wells
Fargo acquired in 2008) targeted the Commonwealth with predatory
interest rate of
payday loans that have left Puerto Rico billions of dollars in the hole. 734 percent!
Wells Fargo and Wachovia were one of the underwriters on seven different issuances of capital
appreciation bonds to Puerto Rico. A capital appreciation bond (CAB) is a long-term bond with
compounding interest on which the borrower does not make any principal or interest payments
for the first several years, and, in some cases, until the final maturity of the bond. As a result, the
outstanding principal actually grows over time because the unpaid interest gets tacked on to the
amount owed, and then the
borrower has to pay interest
Capital Appreciation Bonds that
on the interest. Because of this
Wells Fargo & Wachovia Helped Underwrite
structure, borrowers often
Initial Effective end up paying extraordinarily
Bond Total Interest high interest rates over the life
Principal Interest Rate
of the bonds. In this way, a
2011A COFINA Bonds $380 million $3.5 billion 913% CAB is like the municipal
version of a payday loan.
2011C COFINA Bonds $102 million $434 million 427%

2010A COFINA Bonds $130 million $535 million 412% Wells Fargo and Wachovia
helped underwrite seven
2010C COFINA Bonds $98 million $517 million 529% issuances of these payday
loans to Puerto Rico, which
2009B COFINA Bonds $54 million $291 million 543% have an outstanding balance
of $21.5 billion. However the
2007A COFINA Bonds $1.7 billion $13.2 billion 793% underlying principal on these
bonds is just $2.6 billion. The
2007B COFINA Bonds $147 million $450 million 306%
remaining $18.9 billion is
interestan effective interest
Total $2.6 billion $18.9 billion 734%
rate of 734%!
Each of these CABs is legally dubious because it was issued by the Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing
Corporation, known popularly by its Spanish acronym, COFINA. The COFINA structure was
created to refinance what was considered at the time to be extra-constitutional debta term
that no one has ever defined but which calls its legality into question.

This is illegitimate debt that Wells Fargo and other banks sold to Puerto Rico. In fact, most of it is
not even debt. 88% of it is interest! Puerto Ricans should not be forced to pay for these
payday loans. Furthermore, Wells Fargo should pay back the fees it charged Puerto Rico for
these predatory deals.

A Note About Our Numbers

We used bond-level data from Bloomberg to analyze Puerto Ricos debt in this document.
However, there are significant inconsistences in the data from Bloomberg and the official debt
numbers being put forth by the Puerto Rican government. For example, in November 2015, the
Commonwealth reported only $15.2 billion in total COFINA debt in its Financial Information and
Operating Data Report. However, according to the Bloomberg data, the Commonwealth has $36.9
billion in COFINA bondsmore than double the official number. We strongly urge a complete
audit of the Commonwealths debt to ensure complete transparency and accountability.

About the Authors

Saqib Bhatti and Carrie Sloan are with the ReFund America Project (RAP) of the Action Center
on Race & the Economy (ACRE). RAP tackles the structural problems in the municipal finance
system that cost governments across the United States billions of dollars each year at the expense
of public services. ACRE also helps lead the Forgo Wells Coalition, which seeks to hold Wells
Fargo accountable for its predatory and racist business practices that harm communities around
the globe. Bhatti and Sloan research the role of financial deals in contributing to public budget
distress and work with policy experts, community leaders, and public officials to develop,
advocate for, and implement solutions to save taxpayer dollars.